Parliamentary committee hearing into the rehabilitation of mining and resources projects.

Concerned citizens, experts, the state government and Cooper Mines of Tasmania participated in a parliamentary committee hearing into the rehabilitation of mining and resources projects.

The public hearing was held in Burnie on Thursday and specifically related to the responsibilities of the Commonwealth.

Committee member and Labor Senator for Tasmania, Anne Urquhart, said it was important “governments at all levels, as the regulators, better understand the unique circumstances of mine sites and recognise the valuable role of academia in improving the effectiveness of rehabilitation”.

Senator Anne Urquhart

One of the speakers at the hearing was Greens candidate Scott Jordan, who spoke on behalf of the Bob Brown Foundation.

Mr Jordan said bonds, money mining companies are required to set aside to ensure their mines are cleaned up after production ends, were “inadequate”.

He said there were “systemic problems” with how the bonds were set.

“You've got a scenario where you set a bond as a requirement of issuing a (mining) lease before you've actually done a full environmental impact assessment,” he said.

“So you can't even know what the conditions are, let alone what is needed to remediate it.”

Mr Jordan said the state government’s reforms to the bond system would only make matters worse but this was rejected by resources minister Guy Barnett.

“Tasmania has a robust regulatory framework to manage mining operations from exploration through to closure and rehabilitation, which has been strengthened through recent improvements made by the Government to the Mineral Resources Development Act,” Mr Barnett said.'

Mr Barnett said legacy issues from mining in Tasmania were a focus of the government’s Abandoned Mines Program and new Mining Sector Innovation Program.

The parliamentary committee toured Mount Lyell.

Others who spoke at the parliamentary committee hearing included Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox, a leading scientist in acid mining drainage analysis from UTAS; and representatives from the Environmental Protection Authority of Tasmania

The committee also inspected the rehabilitation practices at CMT’s mine in Mount Lyell and Grange Resources’s mine in Savage River ahead of the public hearing.